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ON THE EFFECTS OF CERTAIN GEOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENTS ON 
THE WORKING OF COAL. BY MR. PHILIP COOPER, OF 
HOLMES COLLIERY, ROTHERHAM. 
There are reasons for believing that all stratified rocks, 
including coal-beds, were originally deposited in a nearly- 
horizontal position, from which their inclination now varies 
in some instances to almost vertical. By far the greatest 
area of the explored coal-fields of this country exist at an 
inclination varying from 1 in 9 to horizontal. Such is the 
case, generally, in the counties of Durham, Northumberland, 
and Yorkshire. In Durham, from the sea on the east, to 
the outcrop of the Coal Measures at Hownes Gill on the 
west, the average inclination is only 1 in 41, and from 
Shireoaks Colliery in Nottinghamshire to Barnsley, it is 
only 1 in 100. The effect of this general upward inclination 
towards the outcrop of the coal-fields, is to bring each 
coal-bed in succession to the surface, where they have 
been opened out and worked by levels from the banks of 
rivers, &c, during the earlier periods of coal-mining. As 
coal-measures are found many hundreds of feet thicker 
on the deep side of faults than they are on the opposite, it 
may be presumed denudation to the extent of the difference 
has taken place since the deposit of the coal-beds. At 
the deepest pit in Durham, the first workable bed is found at 
a depth of 1,593 feet, and at the deepest pit in Nottingham- 
shire, at 1,286 feet. In both cases, the beds referred to 
are now found at moderate depths over extensive areas 
of each district. But for this arrangement of the coal- 
measures, subsequent to their original deposition followed 
by extensive denudation, the beds of coal now found so 
generally accessible at moderate depths, could only have 
been worked by deep sinkings. Their generally moderate 
inclination also facilitates the underground conveyance of 
the coal by inclined planes, and also, by allowing the water 
